Today I wanted to share with you the pictures I have been promising, from Meiling’s most recent collection Night Women.
Inspired by Marlon James’s book The Night Women, Meiling delivered the collection in two parts – allowing patrons to experience the influence and inspiration behind the collection before the actual unveiling of it. As a result, the show was quite a departure from the usual runway events, but a welcome one. An entrancing mini-play directed by Wendell Manwarren set the pace for what to expect in the collection.
The book itself is sad and harsh, centred around a group of slaves on a Jamaican sugar plantation during the 1800s. The plantation owners and the slaves themselves were ruthless and barbaric. The main character Lilith, was raised motherless and struggled to find her way and identity on the plantation and in particular on her own. Lilith thought she was superior because of her green eyes; she believed her eyes were proof that she was the daughter of a white man. She, in a way, believed she was better off than the rest of slaves. Lilith was offered a chance to join the Night Women, who were in charge of staging an island-wide revolt, but she was naïve and stubborn and continued to hang on to the thought that she was indeed superior.
